The Futurist Daily News

Stuxnet targeted five Iranian organizations

Different variants of Stuxnet targeted five Iranian organizations

Stuxnet is a computer worm discovered in June 2010. It initially spreads via Microsoft Windows, and targets Siemens industrial software and equipment. Now, Virus researchers have discovered a variant of the Stuxnet worm. W32.Duqu, was first identified on October 14. While Duqu appears to have been derived from the Stuxnet, its purpose is different: rather than destroying industrial control systems, Duqu appears to be an information stealing Trojan that collects keystrokes and other information that might be used in subsequent attacks.

Different variants of Stuxnet targeted five Iranian organizations,with the probable target widely suspected to be uranium enrichment infrastructure in Iran. Russian computer security firm Kaspersky concluded that the sophisticated attack could only have been conducted “with nation-state support”. This was further backed up by F-Secure’s chief researcher Mikko Hyppönen. It has been speculated that Israel and the United States may have been involved.